Creative Writing: Writing from the Heart

The vast majority of creative writing, or allegedly non-fiction memoir, has its origin in personal experience, which is the writer’s single greatest resource. Fiction or

non-fiction is stimulated by experiences derived from the world, whether those are of other people (characters) or events and experiments. This course will demonstrate how to transform your personal experiences into more dynamic fictional or poetic forms that others may share and relate to. Writing is at root about how we tell stories to each other, and how we thrive on this storytelling urge. We will, therefore, discover how to structure your experiences into effective narrative forms such as short stories or lyrical poems. In doing this, we will also discuss the question of telling the truth in your personal writing, and when this is important or not. Each workshop will be built around the objective of producing the first draft of a piece of work, and we will achieve this aim through simple, stepped writing exercises. Constructive and sensitive feedback will be given at all times and is designed to encourage your

success and enjoyment in writing. Taking pleasure in what you write is important and the emphasis will be on your own particular discoveries about yourself through the course